WASHINGTON — The Philippine government has requested U.S. immigration authorities to allow illegally staying Filipinos facing deportation to return directly to the Philippines and not banish them from America through a third country like Libya, Manila’s top diplomat to Washington said Tuesday.
Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said he conveyed the Philippines’ request to U.S. authorities for all prospective Filipino deportees, including Filipino Americans, amid reports that the Trump administration is planning to deport a group of illegal migrants, including Asians, through Libya before they are flown back to their own countries.
“We definitely would not want them to be deported to a third country. If they are facing any criminal liability, then we will accept them to come to the Philippines and they will probably have to face our laws,” Romualdez said.
“If you’re a Filipino, then you have every right to be deported to the Philippines,” Romualdez told a small group of visiting Philippine and Japanese journalists, including from the GMA News Online, on a reporting tour to the U.S. that is funded by the State Department.
“It is not in our DNA to allow that to happen. We will accept any Filipino to the Philippines, no matter what their status is,” Romualdez said.
Libya’s provisional Government of National Unity earlier declared that it would not accept deported immigrants from the U.S. without approval from Libyan authorities.
Hundreds of deportees, who have been staying illegally or have committed crimes in the U.S., were also being flown from America to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, according to U.S. news reports.
The Trump administration has forged agreements with a number of countries, including Panama, to house the deportees from the U.S.
America has sent Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador, for example, under an 18th-century wartime law but its action is being challenged in courts.
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has been enforcing tough immigration laws and ordering the mass deportation of illegal migrants, one of his top campaign promises.
Romualdez acknowledged that every country has a right to deport anyone staying illegally in any country, saying “we’re doing the same thing in the Philippines.”
“For us to insist that they’d be allowed to stay here is not only out of this world, but it is something that you cannot insist on doing if they’re here illegally most especially if they have committed any kind of crime,” Romualdez said.
However, Romualdez said the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. is committed to help Filipinos in need of assistance on immigration issues “within legal parameters.”
That is “the most that our government can do, because we have to maintain good relations with our host country,” Romualdez said.
“If you have good relations with the government, then they would be kind enough to let us know whether there is a particular citizen of our country that needs to be deported and certainly we will find ways and means to be able to get them back to the Philippines,” he said.
The Philippine Embassy will soon sign an agreement with a group of U.S.-based immigration lawyers to provide legal assistance to Filipinos with deportation problems, Romualdez said.
Romualdez estimates that there may be 100 to 300 Filipinos who may face deportation across the U.S. for various reasons. The figure is much lower than estimates circulating in Philippine media. It is also a small number compared to the thousands of deportees from countries like Mexico and Venezuela.
Romualdez urged Filipinos who entered the U.S. illegally or have overstayed their tourist visa to leave voluntarily to avoid very troublesome immigration ordeals.
“The best way is to always follow the legal path in anything that you do. You think you can get away with something today, but you can’t get away with it forever,” Romualdez said.
The Philippines is a longtime treaty ally of the U.S. and security relations with Washington have strengthened both under Trump and former President Joe Biden.
